Srikanth Kidambi

Srikanth Kidambi (born 7 February 1993) is an Indian badminton player.

Srikanth Nammalwar Kidambi was born in Ravulapalem, Andhra Pradesh on 7 February 1993 to a Telugu family.

His father, KVS Krishna, is a landlord, and his mother Radha is a house-wife.

His older brother K. Nandagopal is also a badminton player and junior national champion with his brother.

They used to live in the same house until 2008 and then Srikanth moved to the Gopichand Academy for continuing his practice.

In the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games in the Isle of Man, Kidambi won the bronze medal in men's doubles and silver in mixed doubles.

He also emerged as the winner in the singles and doubles category at the All India Junior International Badminton Championship held in Pune.

In 2012, Kidambi overcame the then Junior World Champion Zulfadli Zulkiffli of Malaysia in the Maldives International Challenge to claim the men's singles title.

In the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold event, Kidambi won the men's singles title, beating then world number eight and local favorite Boonsak Ponsana in straight games.

In the same year, Kidambi beat reigning champion and Olympian Parupalli Kashyap in the All India Senior National Championships in Delhi to claim his first senior national title.

He was also part of the Awadhe Warriors team that finished second in the Indian Badminton League, 2013.

Kidambi finished runner up at the 2014 India Open Grand Prix Gold event in Lucknow and was a quarterfinalist in the 2014 Malaysian Open.

He was part of the Indian badminton contingent that reached the semi-finals of the mixed team event at the Commonwealth Games 2014 in Glasgow.

He also reached the quarter-finals of the men's singles event in the same tournament.

In November, he created a major upset in the final of the 2014 China Open Super Series Premier by beating 5-time World Champion and 2-time Olympic Champion Lin Dan in straight games (21–19, 21–17), thus becoming the first Indian to win a Super Series Premier men's title.

He then reached the semi-finals of the Hong Kong Open Super Series after beating Taiwan's Chou Tien-chen in an early round.

He lost to Chen Long of China in three games in the semi-finals.

With those wins, he was qualified for the World Superseries Finals.

He defeated Kento Momota (15–21, 21–16, 21–10) and Tommy Sugiarto (21–18, 21–13) in the group stage to reach the semi-final of the prestigious BWF Super Series Masters Finals, where he lost again to Chen Long of China.

and the Arjuna award in 2015.

In 2021, he became the first Indian to reach the World Championship final in the men's singles discipline.

Kidambi became the first Indian man to win gold at the 2015 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold by defeating Viktor Axelsen 21–15, 12–21, 21–14.

During the same year, he also won the India Open Super Series title by defeating Viktor Axelsen in the final.

Kidambi reached the semifinal in the Malaysia Masters, where he lost to Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin of Malaysia in January.

The following week, he won the Syed Modi International Badminton Championships Grand Prix Gold title, defeating Huang Yuxiang 21–13, 14–21, 21–14 in the final.

At the 2016 South Asian Games, he won two gold medals, in men's team and men's singles, defeating Prannoy Kumar in the singles final.

At the 2016 Badminton Asia Team Championship, although his team lost in the semifinal, he remained undefeated.

In the 2016 Rio Olympics, the World No. 11 Kidambi entered the Round of 16 of the men's singles by beating Lino Muñoz and Henri Hurskainen.

He went on to beat World No. 5 Jan Ø. Jørgensen 21–19, 21–19 to reach the quarterfinals, but was defeated by Lin Dan by a score of 6–21, 21–11, and 18–21.

Kidambi and Sai Praneeth created history when they became the first ever Indian pair to enter the finals of a ranking event in Badminton.

Both hailing from Hyderabad and being coached by Pullela Gopichand, it was Sai Praneeth who prevailed 17–21, 21–17, 21–12 eventually to clinch the Singapore Super Series title.

Kidambi won the Indonesia Super Series beating Japan's Kazumasa Sakai 21–11, 21–19, thereby becoming the first ever Indian male player to do so.

He went on to win the Australian Super Series beating China's Chen Long 22–20, 21–16 in the final, setting an Indian record for entering three consecutive Super Series Finals.

At the World Championships, he was defeated in the quarter-final by South Korea's Son Wan-ho in straight games.

At the next Super Series, the Denmark, he won the title defeating Lee Hyun-il of Korea 21–10, 21–5 in the final.

Following his good run, Kidambi became the fourth player ever to win four Super Series titles in a year, after he won the French Super Series that followed, defeating Japan's Kenta Nishimoto 21–14, 21–13 in the final.

In the process, he equalled the record held by Lee Chong Wei, Lin Dan, and Chen Long.

Following the victory, he reached his career-best world ranking of 2.

A former world no. 1, Kidambi was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award, in 2018.

Kidambi started 2018 at the India Open as the second seed.